Fiberoptic cables are commonly used to provide electronic communication in a wide variety of indoor and outdoor communication systems. Optical fiber transmission cables generally comprise one or more optical transmission fibers provided with one or more sheathings of synthetic resin material. In addition, in order to provide the required mechanical strength, such cables are also provided with so-called strength members as reinforcement.
Optical fiber transmission cables are inevitably subjected to tensile loads during the manufacture, handling, installation, and, in some cases, the service life of the cables. For example, the cables are sometimes subjected to substantial pulling forces when being installed from towers or in ducts. Further, strung cables are subject to tensile loads as a result of the cables themselves and due to atmospheric conditions such as wind and ice. Therefore, optical fiber transmission cables are provided with reinforcements to take up such loads in order to prevent breakage of the relatively weak optical fibers.
These reinforcements can take on many forms. For example metallic reinforcements such as aluminum or steel or non-metallic reinforcements such as S-glass fibers, aramid fibers (KEVLAR®), XPE, and/or carbon fibers have all been used as reinforcements as is known in the art. Typically, in the case of non-metallic reinforcements, a curable resin coating is applied to the reinforcement fibers to prevent shrinkage and to prevent optical fiber attenuation within the cabling.
While these reinforcements have improved the workable life of a fiberoptic cable, it is desirable to further improve the resin system and/or the fiber composition to improve tensile strength, tensile moduli, adhesion, environmental protection, resistance to surface fiber breakage, and delamination. It is also desirable to improve the processing to permit higher translation of strain energy due to reduced defects and residual stresses to allow tougher more resilient cured composite reinforcement rods. It is also desirable to reduce waste and increase line efficiency during manufacture to reduce costs.